Disneyland Paris France

Disneyland Paris is 32km east of Paris, right out in the suburbs where large industrial estates mingle with green pastures and clusters of houses. Take RER line A to Marne La Vallée Chessy/Disneyland, which is 40 minutes from Châtelet Les Halles and costs €12 adult, €6 child for a return. If you are buying a Paris Visite travel card, the trip to Disneyland Paris can be included. You can take the Eurostar direct from St Pancras (formerly Waterloo) to Disneyland Paris. There are shuttle buses running from both airports every 45 minutes or so, and they cost €14/€11.50 single.

A one day passport to Disneyland Paris is €38 (adult) or €29 (child) from July to December, or €29 (adult) and €25 (child) from January to June. This passport gains you access to either Disneyland Park or to the Walt Disney Studios Park, but not to both. However, if you buy the Walt Disney Studios Park passport, you can get into the Disneyland Park for the last three hours it is open. Three day passes cost €90/€80 in peak season or €79/€60 off peak. The parks are open 10am 8pm (off peak), and 9am 11pm (peak). You can buy your admission tickets at RER and main métro stations, which saves queuing at the park.

Whether or not building Disneyland in France was a good idea is a very debatable question, and not one we shall address here. It is divided into three areas: Disneyland Park, where the Magic Kingdom and the biggest rides are found; Walt Disney Studios Park, with fake film sets and virtual reality rides; and Disney Village, where you can eat and sleep after all the fun has been had.

Disneyland Park has four 'lands', with Main Street USA as the central point of contact between them. Younger children will adore Fantasyland where you will find Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Mad Hatter's Teacups, Alice's Curious Labyrinth and Peter Pan's Flight. Frontierland has Big Thunder Mountain a runaway mine train. Adventureland is where Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril are located. Discoveryland has Space Mountain, submarines and other high tech rides.

Other attractions laid on by the park are fireworks in the evening and a parade at 4pm every day. This is a good opportunity to get on some of the busier rides while everyone else gawps at the floats that represent Disney's biggest movies.

There are six themed hotels, all of them kitsch at best, an eyesore at worst, and you can eat, drink and sleep Disney in the Disney Village. It costs from around €55 for a self catering log cabin in the Davey Crockett Ranch, a fifteen minute drive from the park, to €400 for a night at the Disneyland Hotel in the centre of the Magic Kingdom.